Objective: Pharmacies have a particularly important responsibility to supply medicine to disaster victims in order to save lives. This study investigated the characteristics of pharmacies that are well prepared for disasters as well as the efforts of the prefectural pharmaceutical association (PPA) to which the pharmacies belong.
Methods: Questionnaires on matters related to disaster preparedness were mailed to 50 randomly selected pharmacies in each of Japan's 47 prefectures as well as all 47 PPAs in Japan. Logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association of pharmacy background and the activities of the PPA to which they belong with pharmacy disaster preparedness as well as the association with pharmacies' awareness of disaster preparedness.
Results: Pharmacies in prefectures that conducted disaster preparedness training at least three times a year were better prepared for disasters. In addition, pharmacies with high online utilization and high disaster-preparedness awareness were significantly more prepared for disasters.
Conclusions: Pharmacies that can promptly provide medicine to disaster victims are considered to be well-prepared for disasters. The results suggest that pharmacy preparedness is also influenced by the disaster preparedness activities of their prefectures.
Keywords: disaster preparedness; pharmacy; prefectural pharmaceutical association.